Comics, Manga, Film & Cartoon Reviews For Geeks and Newbies

N00b Reviews: Fairy Tail

I’ve never read or seen any manga before, but have recently seen a couple of dubbed anime series’ such as Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist and Steins Gate that have peaked my interest in all things Japanese.I am completely new to the world of manga though, and so each week I will be reviewing a different popular manga series by reading the first arc of the series and sharing my thoughts and opinions on them as a complete n00b to the manga world!

I am going to start by looking at Fairy Tail; a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The reason I chose Fairy Tail is because I enjoyed watching the first episode of the anime series, and was intrigued by potential differences between that and the manga.

Plot Summary

Fairy Tail tells the story of a 17-year-old Stellar Spirit Mage Lucy, who wants to join the infamous wizard guild ‘Fairy Tail’. Her ambition leads her into the hands of a bunch of unsavory pirates led by a devious magician. Along the way she also meets the main hero Natsu, a strange pink-haired boy that seems to have the powers of a dragon earning him the nickname ‘Salamander.’ He is also part of the wizard guild Fairy Tail; a bunch of crazy mages that always seem to leave a trail of destruction behind them. (For example, in the first issue Natsu saves Lucy from a bunch of perverted pirates and conspiring wizard but in doing so destroys half of the town.) Natsu and Lucy also join forces with a magical flying blue cat named Happy and undertake missions to gain jewels (currency) for the Guild.

First Impressions:

My initial thoughts when reading the manga were the issues were quite short, well-drawn but a bit confusing if i’m being honest! But that might be just because I’m not used to the layout of manga yet. I was unsure of the order in which to read some of the speech bubbles and it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. But on the positive side I did really like the style of the illustrations.

There are also a few ‘WTF??’ pages though:

Is all manga full of super pervy characters? Do they all feature really creepy guys and creatures and constant references to boobs and short skirts..?

What I liked about Fairy Tail:

I really liked the art style and themes of friendship and teamwork similar to Yu-gi-oh. The manga is light-hearted and filled with comedy, the characters were well-written, and it did encourage me to carry on reading more issues.

What I didn’t like about Fairy Tail:

I didn’t like the short story arcs as I felt like I wanted more stuff to happen in each chapter. As I mentioned above I disliked the confused feeling I had with what was happening because I was unsure about the order in which to read some of the speech.

Overall Opinion:

All in all, I did enjoy my first taste of manga and can see it being something I genuinely gain a keen interest in. My only hope is that they don’t all feature loads of pervy characters and confusing dialogue layout. As for Fairy Tail, I would recommend giving it a read if you especially enjoy fantasy and magic-based stories.

And so my journey to discover everything there is to know about manga begins!

Written by Marketing Whizz-Kid Jess Harcastle for Cosmic Anvil.

Check out Cosmic Anvil’s very own manga-inspired comic book series ‘Age of Revolution’ in print and on Comixology!